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Russia’s antitrust service may mull Sakhalin pipe access case in month

MOSCOW, September 25 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) may resume consideration of an oil major Rosneft’s claim against Gazprom-run Sakhalin Energy over access to the Sakhalin-2 gas transportation system in a month or a month and a half, the service’s Deputy Director Anatoly Golomolzin told reports Thursday.

“Additional information from the sides will be requested; we are studying the facts of the case, we will return to the case’s consideration approximately in a month or a month and a half,” Golomolzin said.

FAS was to start considering the case on Tuesday, but postponed it, saying that a new date of the case’s hearing will be scheduled later.

Rosneft hopes for an out-of-court agreement over the access until the end of 2014, Vice President Vlada Rusakova said on Tuesday.

Earlier in September, an arbitration court of Russia’s Sakhalin Region postponed hearing of Rosneft’s claim against Gazprom to October 13.

In June, Gazprom denied Rosneft access to the Sakhalin-2 pipeline, saying there is no free capacity.

Rosneft hoped to pump up to 8 billion cubic meters of gas through the pipeline annually. The company may use the pipeline to supply gas to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant owned jointly with ExxonMobil, Sakhalin Region Governor Alexander Khoroshavin said earlier.